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Jaguar Land Rover’s First All-electric I-PACE Coming in 2018; Tesla and SolarCity Shareholders Vote for Merger; Toyota Starts to Invest More on Electric Cars

Jaguar Land Rover’s First All-electric I-PACE Coming in 2018

According to Fortune, Jaguar Land Rover Launched its first all-electric concept car – named I-PACE – during the Los Angeles Auto Show. The product version will be introduced in late 2017 and the company plans to bring it to market in 2018.

The I-PACE is a five-seat SUV, with a 90-kWh battery pack onboard. It is expected to have an electro-range of 220 miles. The 0-60 mph acceleration is roughly 4 seconds. The car is of course all-wheel drive, with dual electric motors. The design fuses the front of the C-X75 hybrid concept and the back of the F-PACE SUV. Mechanically, the cabin is placed more to the front and the wheelbase is extended, for better aerodynamics.

Tesla and SolarCity Shareholders Vote for Merger

According to Wall Street Journal, the shareholders of Tesla and SolarCity respectively approved the $2.1 billion all-stock merge proposed by Tesla. The integrated company will be selling electric cars, rooftop solar panels and home battery storage. Elon Musk will be the head of the new company.

Mr. Musk earlier showed a normal-looking roof solar tile product that the new company would launch. Before the merge, SolarCity has changed its business model and started to sell its solar panels rather than the previous leasing.

Toyota Starts to Invest More on Electric Cars

According to Fortune, Toyota will create an internal venture company to develop electric cars next month. The small company will have four members, each respectively coming from Toyota Industries, Aisin Seiki, Denso and Toyota Motor. Toyota thinks that this small structure will “enable it to implement unconventional work processes, leading to accelerated project progress and, thus, fast-to-market products”.

Different from many major car OEMs’ strategies on electric cars, Toyota had been rather in favor of fuel cell vehicles, which as compared with EVs, are longer range, faster fueling and better safety. Toyota launched world-first fuel cell model Mirai last year.

Toyota has tracking record of successful innovations with respect to Lexus and Prius. This makes one confident in the fuel cell adventure and the new EV venture company both of which Toyota is working on.